Stef's Blog - a native London Southlander and unrepentant 'Conspiraloon™' who doesn't trust anyone, not even himself. Sometimes I take pictures. I also enjoy swearing immensely and think much faster than I can type, so each post comes guaranteed to include at last one confusing typo. OK?

Max called Iceland well. From a personal point of view I'd like it if someone had done a piece on the carry trade in New Zealand as well as Iceland - but Iceland really was the zit that was going to burst first and largest

Max has not called oil well and was trumpeting the recent rise to $150 as being the result of Peak Oil and nothing to do with speculation

Oil is currently kicking around the $90 mark and I would suggest that a $60 fall in a couple of months has fuck all to do with Peak Oil and lots to do with spec trading

The numbers for liquid fuel production don't look good for 2009-13. Even if there is enough in the ground, which I personally think is the case, there certainly isn't enough serviceable infrastructure to drill, refine and distribute wit. Realisation of the impending fuck up has yet to properly filter through to the markets. So Keiser will be right on that one but not yet

Ditto for gold which took a dive last month and hasn't pulled back yet

and it only seems fair that, given NATO had apparently decided that the North Atlantic stretches out the Caucasus and Afghanistan, the Russians extend their own sphere of, um, friendly cooperation out Westwards a little bit

yep max got gold and oil wrong,,,but hey things can and probably will change fast.Peak Oil???who knows R Heinberg is always on about it,,having read his book the Party is Over,,makes you wonder.could all be disinfo.fuck knows.

yep max got gold and oil wrong,,,but hey things can and probably will change fast.Peak Oil???who knows R Heinberg is always on about it,,having read his book the Party is Over,,makes you wonder.could all be disinfo.fuck knows.

what impresses me is how folk like Keiser and other envirofundamentalists manage to get sweaty about Peak Oil AND AGW

IMHO there still are enough exploitable liquid hydrocarbons and liquid hydrocarbon substitutes in the ground but there's going to be a bad bottleneck real soon now as the result of the ageing/ inadequate infrastructure and the efforts of the AGW lobby to impede new projects

There's a lag of 5-7 years in bringing new supply/ infrastructure on line so if a crunch comes it will be a period of sustained difficulty

There is so little oil we had to take Iraq out of production for the best part of 15 years.Maybe there is actually too much of a good thing, though I am no particular fan of the toxic, hydrocarbonic society.

I loved the Huskies.I nearly came a cropper down their one day.I got caught in bad weather too far from the station and couldn´t see the flag line.If I had not been tied to the dog who thankfully was not as disorientated as I was then I may not have been here today! They had to leave because the Antarctic treaty stated that non indigenous species should not be there(barring man of course)the dogs had been bred there since the early 60s I believe.

So we can safely say the max is sometimes right and sometimes wrong. Rare quality, that.Though it is strange no one else thought there was something rum about a boom that size on a windswept rock with 330,000 people on it.I just looked at housebuilding completions in the Celtic T(ax Haven)iger for the last 9 years:650,000 for a population of 4.3 million.If you're going to go nuts,at least tulips are easier to dispose of than luxury flats.

"Hopefully, none of Max's fans took out highly leveraged, margined positions based on that prediction - otherwise they'd have been busted before it comes true" - LOL. I was getting a bit suspicious of Max incessantly hammering the dollar. I did suspect he had/has a few 'shorts' in the bag, and I’m not talking about P.E.

I still think he's right, although this mad dash attempt by the bush brigade has yet to shake out. If gold prices are artificially low, bet your life oil is.

Russian strategic bombers could do heavy damage if properly escorted...

yes, or the Russians could just dump a few bonds, sell a little currency, turn off a few taps and sit back and watch our own governments turn 'our' own guns on ourselves

as it happens, I believe the Russians to have a less aggressive culture than ours and more than enough territory to keep themselves occupied indefinitely - which is just as well given what 'we' did to them 10-15 years ago

Gold, like oil, is a commodity. And as such its market can, and will be, rigged. Too many commentators and pundits are pushing investors towards gold. I smell a rat.

Having gold coins in your socks won't help either, as possession of gold can be outlawed.

As to returning to the gold standard, I don't think so. The US abolished it because they ran out of gold and couldn't print any more dollars. Revaluating currencies against gold would totally bankrupt everyone. However currencies can be pegged on anything, silver, oil, coffee.

A friend who grew up in 50s USA was given a coat sewn full of gold coins so that when the Red/Yellow Peril descended, as it "surely would", she could bribe her way to Montana or some such place. I don't know if that's really such a great solution though.

The plan will see the Government spend up to £50 billion on buying priority shares in the banks in order to boost their capital.

In addition the Government will make £250 billion available to underwrite the banks' medium-term debts in an attempt to prevent a disastrous funding gap in the next few years.

The Bank of England will inject a further £200 billion into the money markets under its Special Liquidity Scheme - the deal which sees banks swap risky mortgages for Treasury bonds.

The Treasury announced that the following banks had confirmed they would seek Government help under the scheme: "Abbey, Barclays, HBOS, HSBC Bank plc, Lloyds TSB, Nationwide Building Society, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Standard Chartered."

Iceland expressed disappointment on Tuesday that western allies had failed to provide support to help ease the country’s financial crisis, forcing it to turn to Russia for a €4bn loan.

“We have not received the kind of support that we were requesting from our friends,” said Geir Haarde, prime minister. “So in a situation like that one has to look for new friends.”

In spite of the new friendship, Mr Haarde said it did not extend to military co-operation, refuting the suggestion that Russia might be given access to an airbase vacated by the US air force in 2006. “We are a founder member of Nato,” noted an official, “categorically denying” any such deal.

There was confusion over the status of the Russian loan, with the central bank first saying it had secured €4bn ($5.4bn, £3bn) on a four-year deal, at between 30 and 50 basis points above the London interbank offered rate, before acknowledging that the pact had yet to be finalised.

"I see max as something of a niche pundit, one for outsiders who want to feel smart. " - meaning???

Its just my opinion, lw, but I see him as a sort of plutocratically well connected conspiratainer, giving us little folks a peek up the skirts of high finance. Look how crazy they are! This is going to end in tears! I think he knows his audience and gives them what they want

But, as you know, I'm all for free speech.

I don't feel this has been a disaster waiting to happen that the players have not foreseen but a fairly well planned event. As all ponzi schemes are.

Here's some maxpredictions:1) The price of gold and the Dow Jones will reach parity between 4,000 and 5,000 (i.e., gold will trade between $4 - 5,000 as does the Dow Jones Industrial Average).

2) America’s sovereignty, as defined as percentage ownership of American financial assets, principally U.S. government bonds (soon to no longer be rated AAA), will be mostly in the hands of foreigners.

3) China will buy Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and in so doing become America’s biggest land lord.

4) Very few of the current Bush administration, family, and close associates will be living inside U.S. borders within 6 months after leaving office.

5) The Presidential election in November will be delayed due to a global financial crisis.

6) The U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan will start to run out of money and be left to get out on their own resulting in American mercenaries hiring groups like the Taliban to escort them out of the region, with Bin Laden getting a commission on each deal.

7) Russia will emerge as the new power broker in a post-America world restoring financial order between America, the largest debtor in the world and China, the largest creditor in the world.

Which, to an uncharitable person like myself, looks suspiciously like 'the reds are coming'.

The more I watch him, the more I think he's just another windbag talking head.What he says has good fun value, but is of very little substance. His rants are very much like horoscopes, they are so general everyone can hang on to something and understand what they want from them.

re Gold

I suppose gold will always be worth something, so buying gold paper to preserve one's wealth makes sense.Except that gold paper might vanish with the bank, or end up being worth much less after the big guys made their profit.Buying physical gold will get you nowhere if some sort of central system is preserved, as you can't make 0.0002 of a gold coin to buy a pint of milk, and it may not be accepted either. And when you resell it, you get taxed.Gold is just not for the little guy.

re Iceland

Is it me or it looks like a bit of horsetrading between NATO and Russia?I take Georgia, and you take Iceland.

"The more I watch him, the more I think he's just another windbag talking head.What he says has good fun value, but is of very little substance.His rants are very much like horoscopes, they are so general everyone can hang on to something and understand what they want from them."

disagree with that---------------------------------

Buying physical gold will get you nowhere if some sort of central system is preserved, as you can't make 0.0002 of a gold coin to buy a pint of milk, and it may not be accepted either. And when you resell it, you get taxed.Gold is just not for the little guy.

your average guy in the street could not afford a gold bar.Gold is I agree for people with big accounts.Gold is safe haven in troubled times

"as you can't make 0.0002 of a gold coin to buy a pint of milk, and it may not be accepted either"

your kidding me!!!

"Is it me or it looks like a bit of horsetrading between NATO and Russia?I take Georgia, and you take Iceland."

It´s funny.Listening to BBC4 news on the radio,the interviewer asked some government fuck wit where the 500 big B´s were coming from!!the reply was we will have to borrow it!!!!borrow from fuckin who???the banks are the ones receiving the cash(supposedly) so who is lending the 500 Billion???the banks aint got cash or am I missing something??help me out someone!!wher is the 500 Billion going to magically appear from???I think I know the answer.The government have created 500 billion debt that the good ol UK taxpayers will have to cough up through their lifes blood time and energy.I´m tell you the whole thing is a contrived fuckin big joke being played upon the masses.To what end I do not know.Control??

I don't feel this has been a disaster waiting to happen that the players have not foreseen but a fairly well planned event. As all ponzi schemes are.

Quite

You could argue over the specific level of planning that went into engineering the crash till the cows came home. What isn't debatable is that the crash was 100% foreseeable.

If all your money is created out of debt and needs repaying with interest, the failure of the system is, to rip a line from Titanic, a mathematical certainty

If you're going to amplify the risk of an already flawed system many hundreds of times with the aid of margin, leverage and derivatives, that systemic failure has the potential to become catastrophic

There's no fucking way the engineers of this flawed by design Ponzi scheme didn't see it coming and a whole bunch of apparently unconnected events are going to become connected in a way that only we unhappy band of Loons, and the fuckers behind those events, have been capable of imagining

I loved the Huskies.I nearly came a cropper down their one day.I got caught in bad weather too far from the station and couldn´t see the flag line.If I had not been tied to the dog who thankfully was not as disorientated as I was then I may not have been here today!They had to leave because the Antarctic treaty stated that non indigenous species should not be there(barring man of course)the dogs had been bred there since the early 60s I believe.

sometimes life presents you with a choice or a chance that determines the course for the rest of your life.In my early 20s sitting in the back of my works van munching my lunch break in a dingy backstreet of Glasgow,I was depressed,,I was thinking "is this fuckin it, burstin my ass for a shit wage surrounded by drunks and head cases? then looking forward to the weekend to get totally shit faced and then repeat the cycle over and over.",,as fate would have it an opportunity came to leave the UK,I took it and never went back.

I often reflect that if I did not make that decision in the back of the van to get the fuck away there would have been a good chance of ending up in an early grave or like the character in

so it seems that councils up and down the country have been investing council tax money etc to invest in overseas banks.Rather than use the money to improve services etc etc they have been sticking it in banks in Iceland!caught out now though.

The plans to implement martial law in America have been taking shape for decades, hidden behind "Continuity of Government" contingency planning. Now, with public outcry over the banker bailout bill at fever pitch, all of the pieces are in place for the U.S. Army to start policing American citizens.

there is an impending sense of doom over the pond.I thought I´d look at a random message on the GM message board.http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/Stocks_%28A_to_Z%29/Stocks_G/threadview?m=tm&bn=7869&tid=554658&mid=554658&tof=12&frt=2here it is US GOVT IMPOSES MARSHALL LAW 11 minutes ago DUE TO THE DECAPITATION OF INVESTORS WEALTH, MASSIVE RIOTS HAVE BROKEN OUT THROUGH OUT THE US. THE FEDERAL GOVT HAS IMPOSTED MARSHALL LAW. ALL US CITIZENS MUST REPORT NO LATER THAN JAN 1,2009 TO ID CENTERS TO RECIEVE THEIR RFID CHIP- IT MUST BE IMPLANTED AND SCANNED FOR TRACKING OF ALL US CITIZENS...

Which says, "Ms. Kroes, the member of the Commission responsible for State aid control and antitrust recently addressed the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee of the European Parliament.

Her speech, which gives some indication of the calamitous state of the banking sector in Europe, outlines what has been done so far to shore up all those bankrupt banks. In essence, it seems that the Commission is rubber stamping the aid given by member States to their banking and credit institutions.

The speech seems to imply that far worse is to come.

In expectation of the coming catastrophe, the Commission will issue new guidance for bank recapitalization and guarantee schemes." Links in original.

US President George W Bush has urged other nations not to take any unilateral action in the current global economic crisis.

Speaking at the White House, he said countries must take co-ordinated action to tackle the market meltdown.

"We must ensure the actions of one country do not contradict or undermine the actions of another," he said.

He spoke as the Group of Seven and the International Monetary Fund held crisis talks in the US capital.

"We still together and address this threat to our prosperity," Mr Bush said.

translation

"don´t do anything we don´t agree with,,,we need to plunder your monetary systems as well to support our fucked up economy,,,we suggest that Hank Paulson should set up a unified world banking plan or the H.P.W.B.P that way we get to stelal Europeans money as well!"

I say fuck the the Dollar,Wall street etc etc,,Keiser is right,,stay the fuck away from the dollar and the wankers on wallstreet.Toxic currency toxic nation.

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